22 May 2010

Title: FirespellAuthor: Chloe NeillSeries: Dark Elite #1Genre: YARelease Date: January 5th 2010Blurb:As the new girl at the elite St. Sophia’s boarding school, Lily Parker thinks her classmates are the most monstrous things she’ll have to face…

When Lily’s guardians decided to send her away to a fancy boarding school in Chicago, she was shocked. So was St. Sophia’s. Lily’s ultra-rich brat pack classmates think Lily should be the punchline to every joke, and on top of that, she’s hearing strange noises and seeing bizarre things in the shadows of the creepy building.

The only thing keeping her sane is her roommate, Scout, but even Scout’s a little weird—she keeps disappearing late at night and won’t tell Lily where she’s been. But when a prank leaves Lily trapped in the catacombs beneath the school, Lily finds Scout running from a real monster.

Scout’s a member of a splinter group of rebel teens with unique magical talents, who’ve sworn to protect the city against demons, vampires, and Reapers, magic users who’ve been corrupted by their power. And when Lily finds herself in the line of a firespell, Scout tells her the truth about her secret life, even though Lily has no powers of her own—at least none that she’s discovered yet…

I really liked Lily since the beginning. She's smart, loyal and a little bit reckless. She tries the best she can at her new school, even though things aren't going so well.At the beginning Scout is a bit of a loner, but she makes fast friends with Lily, even though she's keeping secrets from her. It was really interesting seeing the relationship both girls have with their parents and how they progress, especially the one with Lily and her folks.

We also get introduced to Michael and Jason. They are both the love interests of Scout and Lily respectively. Appart of that, they're part of the same secret group as Scout. The girls have another roomate, Lesley, and I have to say that I felt sorry for her. She tries so hard to make friends with them, but they're always too busy.

The beginning was a little slow, then at the middle of the book we get dumped with a whole lot of information and then all the action happens in the last chapters. I wished all of it could had been better distributed.

The mystery starts in this book and I really hope it keeps going forward in the next one. This was a good start of a promising series.

Memorable Lines:

"Do you have his number?" Scout asked, reaching around for her messenger bag. "I could give it to you."

Veronica practically growled, then turned on her heel and headed for the cafeteria door. Mary Katherine, lip wrinkled in disgust, followed her. Amie looked vaguely apologetic about the outburst, but that didn't stop her from turning tail and following, too.

"Nicely done," I complimented.

"Mmm-hmm," Scout said, straightening in her chair again. "See what I mean? TBD."

I lifted my eyebrows. "TBD?"

"Total brat drama," she said. "TBD is way too much drama for me, especially at seven thirty in the morning."